Beyond the scoreline: Mngqithi’s unmet expectations in 4-0 hammering of Chiefs

Despite a resounding 4-0 victory over Kaizer Chiefs in the Carling Knockout Cup quarter-final, Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi expressed dissatisfaction with his troops’ performance.

The encounter played at a packed FNB Stadium in Soweto, saw Sundowns dominate proceedings, but Mngqithi felt that his team could have been more clinical and displayed a higher level of football.

Mngqithi pointed out that while the scoreline was impressive, the quality of play was not up to his expectations.

From the outset, Sundowns controlled the game, with Man of the Match Iqraam Rayners stealing the show. The striker netted a brace, and Peter Shalulile added another one to give Sundowns a comfortable 3-0 lead at half-time.

The second-half saw Khuliso Mudau extend Sundowns’ advantage, while Chiefs were reduced to ten men after captain Inacio Miguel was sent off for a foul on Shalulile in the 54th minute of the game.

“We could have scored a lot of goals,” said a dissatisfied Manqoba Mngqithi. “Personally, I am that kind of a coach who fell in love with football because of goals. I like a team that scores more…”

He added: “To be honest, I don’t think it was one of those matches that you would say was a cutting edge in terms of the resistance that we got. I don’t think the resistance was as strong as we thought, and it will fool you sometimes when you create so many chances from situations that, under normal circumstances, you would not create a lot of chances.

MNGQITHI’S HIGH STANDARDS: WHY A 4-0 WIN OVER CHIEFS ISN’T ENOUGH

The Tshwane giants coach reiterated that he was disappointed with the match, stating that the performance did not meet his expectations and that he believed his team could have performed better.

“I think the level of the game did not reach my expectations, and I’m coming out of the game as a very unhappy person because I think we could have done better,” he declared.

“We committed a lot of silly mistakes when we could have just terminated the attack, maybe pass someone to finish with an open net, and sometimes we are anxious to try and score ourselves. So, I would not rank this match very high in terms of the quality of football that was played. I’m just happy that the team dominated the game, but I expected a little bit more.

“I’m really unhappy with the number of goals we scored today because I think we should have scored a lot of goals, and it is important when you got an opportunity to do that, you do it: Bayern [Munich] does it, [Bayer] Leverkusen does it as well.

“The same Sundowns could score 24 goals, so we should always use the benchmarks that are there to try and always better them. You may say we were relentless, but I think we were not on the cutting edge, and we didn’t play good all the time. There were moments where we played for fun, and I was very unhappy with that.”

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